SBR Utopia - OPEN (Page 91)

There are a lot of triathletes who are against anything but SBR.  I say go with what works for you though I am not sure what you are doing is working for you.  When starting a new program whether weights or yoga you should expect some soreness but if that soreness is after every workout and is affecting your SBR you may want to re-evaluate.

I love hot yoga and feel it helps keep the injuries at bay. I was going three times a week for a while which was lovely but once the SBR picked up I went down to twice and now it is 1-2 times a week depending on my husbands schedule as it is a very early morning class, somebody has to be here for the kids.  Anything other than SBR may or may not help with SBR. I haven't done weights in ages because I know it affects me in the pool and running BUT I am also concerned I need to use weights to build more muscle to lose weight which would then help my SBR or at least my run.  Will it make me faster? Not directly but losing 10 pounds might make me faster.  I have found it difficult to lose weight with cardio alone.

I think the answer to this depends on your situation/goals. Lots of people will recommend just SBR more. I ST a couple times a week for physical therapy purposes. I have some pretty significant imbalances/weaknesses that have caused injuries in the past and feel that ST helps (so does my PT.)  I don't do heavy work but can tell the difference if I run/ride post as the legs will be a little tired.  Caveat: my SBR goals are very modest so I'm not really concerned about impact. Kim S is a huge proponent of ST and does a lot of it. 

I've mainly just used it for the bike, as that can be so all over the place with us riding at every intensity under the sun. I know it's there for running, but haven't been so sure of how accurate it is. Also have read that adding them together may not be the best thing. Since running tends to be mostly easy, sometimes hard, I can get a decent feel just from mileage or time. At least the way I've been training, there isn't really a "moderate" like in the biking.

I don't really have a good way to measure out swimming. Only since I've joined Masters a few months ago has there been a decent time option, and that's still for 2 of 5 swims a week. The gym I normally go to only has an office type wall clock, and it's hard to even see the minutes on it. I've also been getting better fast, so would have to keep adjusting the threshold value frequently for the TSS to be of any use. I'm getting a feel for what the swims will take out of me though, as they tend to be focused around threshold for the main set.

I let TP calculate TSS for the run and bike and I would say they are pretty spot on. i went for a 90 min 19k run on Sunday and it scored me 144 TSS points. If I scored 144 in 90min on the bike, I would probably feel the same

For the swim, I would say it's similar. I get about 70 TSS points for 50min of swimming (this does not include the rests).

TP TSS on the run is pretty cool, especially since it factors hilly courses

I agree.  It does seem to be a decent representation of how hard a run was compared to a similar score from the bike.

For years before I got into SBR, I lifted a lot -- when lifting a lot, you kind of get used to always being a little sore/fatigued and it wasn't a big deal as I'd be able to work different muscle groups. 

With my current rehab program, it's all focused on my lower body, which obviously affects cycling.  I'm thinking I'll probably continue for another week or so and then phase it out until off season, and then consider picking it up again.

Strengthening quads/hamstrings/glutes sounded like a good idea when my PT suggested it, but it hasn't done anything to improve how my knee feels....and I've never had any imbalance issues, so I honestly don't think it will be a big deal to back off.  Before my accident, I had hoped to be able to train to be near FOP for sprint/oly distances.  Now my goal is to eventually be able to run again.  Regardless, I don't think strength training provides enough benefit at this time.

You get the swim numbers from TP as well?

Yes it is a beta feature, but you have to add your threshold pace in under your metrics or TP will assign only a 1 or 2 as your sTSS . I may be doing something wrong, but I think it gives you a rather "loose" score, as it just uses your overall time and distance to calculate your pace. So kick sets, rests, etc. can blow the number. I was actually just reading up on this a bit yesterday and found out that TP has tightened up their Finis SwimSense integration to include a more accurate sTSS by using the SwimSense lap/stroke/pace/rest data. I have a swimsense but have not used it for the past two years. Maybe I will update the software and strap it on for tomorrow's swim and report back. But just what I need - another device to charge up, set, calibrate, download, etc.... We will see.

Nicole - I have proven to be fairly fragile over the years and I am hanging my hat on a solid base period of strength training this go around, so we will see.. This winter my base block has included some focus on building core strength and lateral strength and stability primarily via Pilates and yoga. At the moment I can tell a huge difference in my longer runs, particularly in relation to my hips rotators and flexors. It seems to have paid off on my long climbing bikes as well. The goal of my winter strength training has been long-term injury prevention. While I agree that strength training will not directly make me faster, if it makes me more resilient I can train SBR more consistently and that WILL make me faster. My base/strength block finished up this past week and I am now transitioning to a LT block where the strength/flexibility work will be dialed back to just a maintenance level, but it won't stop altogether.

Sally, sorry to hear the foot is still acting up - patience, you know it will come around.

I finally succumbed to a little cold that has been going around, and yesterday included a lot of off-and-on fever, sore throat, and general stuffiness. Today is much, much better (still a little sore throat and stuffiness) but my coach insisted that I take another recovery day - we agreed to a long walk and black to a shortened/easier swim tomorrow. I bristled a little bit, but he referred me back to my logs from a year ago when I had a little cold coming on and I went on a hard group ride and then a hard swim the next day, followed up by a respiratory infection and a case of bronchitis that took me out of training for 10 days and another solid month to completely recover from. I guess that is the great things about keeping accurate logs, if you are willing to use them...

Racing this weekend hopefully: a nice hilly trail HM on mostly single track, and it supposed to be cold and pouring rain. I definitely would like to have this particular virus behind me before I catch the next one this weekend....

I don't have TP, but have toyed with the idea of using it.  If they do this metric for swimsense, does anyone know if they also do it for the 910?

Trying so hard to dodge the sickness around here. Working in a school makes me want to put myself in a bubble. My husband keeps getting sick because he is in a training class this month and everyone is sick...today the guy next to him looked like he had a rash so my hubby asked what it was and he said it wasn't a rash, it was burst blood vessels from throwing up so much...yuuuuuuck!!! We've all had colds lately, they seem to just go round and round.

We actually had some snow here in Phoenix today. Unbelievable. The mountains by our house are white!

Yes, it works for the 910. I have used the swimsense and the 910.

If you want a 2 week premium trial, PM me and I'll send you a code. Offer applies to anyone in this group

Thanks Kim! I just checked the forecast and it has gone from an 80% chance of rain on Saturday to a 20% chance just in the last 12 hours. Not that I am obsessively checking Saturdays weather or anything...

Not an expert by any means. But I told there are two ways to improve fly. The brute force method where by doing more and suffering a lot, you squeeze out some marginal improvements, but you will not be winning the 200m fly anytime soon.

The second method is to nail the dolphin kick, body motion and timing. All the people I know that are good at fly say it's all in the kick, body and timing.  That's the little I can contribute.

I'd say this is pretty much spot on.  It is *very* common for people to only have two speeds for fly and once things start to fall apart, they go very bad and very ugly in a hurry.  If you can get a good, well timed kick it makes it a lot easier to not fall apart (as bad).  I find it to be a stroke where you really have to control your efforts early if you want to survive any amount of it.  There is a significant strength aspect to it and if you aren't careful early, it is easy to power yourself way over threshold and blow up badly.

That said, it's a beautiful, powerful stroke if you can get the hang of it.

Strength Training - have to do it.  Check out this article has training program for tri season.  http://www.active.com/triathlon/Articles/Mark_Allen_s_12_Best_Strength_Exercises

You're legs feel heavy for various reasons, one may be that you're lifting too heavy, another maybe that you're legs are not use to what you're doing and you have to give them time (esp. since injury).  During tri season I'm doing 2 or 3 sets and 15 reps each set, very light weight.  I'm very stocky (5'4" and 185 lbs) and can't afford to add any muscle (I'm HUGE already    lift light and more reps during tri-season. 

Believe me it helps.  Good luck.

Thanks. Sounds like I have the parts then, just need to keep going and put them together better.

Ben - I too am far from an expert, but I have gotten a little more serious about learning all of the strokes this year as well. I still have a ton of work to do on my fly and actually do a lot more drills for it than the actual stroke itself. For me the two big things that have helped have been to REALLY work on my dolphin kick: front, back and both sides, with and without fins. My favorite/the worst is to push off the wall underwater (no fins) and see how far down the pool I can go before coming to a dead stop. It has really helped me to get my form/timing better - and most notably get my arms really locked in with my head/neck. The second big thing has been to nail my breast stroke - I think it has helped tremendously with timing when done correctly. FWIW the fly actually started out as a faster(yet legal for a while) way to swim the breast stroke, (it incorporated the butterfly kick later) and it was only in the 50s I think when it became recognized as its own stroke. For some reason that little bit of knowledge clicked with me and got my timing a little more square. I will agree that on the rare occasion when I get it right it is almost magical - that is what keeps me trying to get better at it. But I have a loooooong way to go.

Going for swim today!  I'm anxious about it because it's first day back since injurying my PF.  I am not planning to push off the turns at all  

I'll let you know how I do

And of course now the forecast has changed BACK to an 80% chance of rain for Saturday. Yee-haw.

Heh ... the forecasts are like the weather both around the South and the Southern hemisphere ... wait 5 minutes, it'll change!

I was chagrined by the following until I checked two other weather services, which have something completely different. For both you and Kim, I wish a dry and sunny weekend!

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